Storage according to a dixie chick » Dont Do This

Don’t Do this: Require books that are out of print

gminks — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:28:10 +0000

Don’t require your students to purchase books for your class that were last printed over 20 years ago, and are currently out of print.

Make the chapters of those books available as pdf’s.

Don’t Do This: Name files incorrectly

gminks — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:35:21 +0000

I have another entry in the “Don’t Do This” category. Don’t make the students work harder than necessary to access what they need for assignments. For instance, if you know forgetting to name a document .doc will confuse the download mechanism on Blackboard, make sure to add the .doc to the document name.

Don’t Do This: Be unavailable when assignments are due

gminks — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:29:10 +0000

I’m going to start a new category called “Don’t Do This”. Since I am a 100% distance student in my graduate program, I’m experiencing all sorts of frustration around the way classes are built and managed. This category will start collecting my thoughts (as a student) on things you should think about when designing classes so that your students don’t experience this frustration too.

My first Don’t Do This is: Don’t make an assignment due on Sunday, and then indicate that students must expect a 2-day delay for responses via emails or the message boards.

My current instructor does this. So my normal method of waiting till Saturday morning (since I work full-time) to really work on my project that is due on a Sunday morning won’t work for this class. If I have a question, I won’t get an answer in time to complete the lesson on time.

So, Don’t Do This!